Posted by Chris on March 03, 2001 at 13:13:16:
Last Wednesday (2/28/2001) I went out on the Peace for their open boat to San Nic.
The trip began Tuesday with a drive from my El Porto home to Ventura Harbor.
There were spots of sunshine, and other of pouring rain along the entire drive.
The boat left at midnight with 17 passengers.
The trip out was so smooth and calm, I never knew we left the harbor.
I awoke to the sound of the anchor dropping and found we were at San Miguel with Prince Island visible through the dark.
Captain Eric came down and said the Navy had closed the area between Ventura and Nic for a missile test, thus he opted for Miguel.
When it began to get light they pulled anchor and headed for the Northwest side of the island,
where they had done very well for bugs a week or so before.
Eric dropped anchor in a spot that was a series of pinnacles extending up to about 50 ft. from a 100-ft. sand bottom.
It was pretty, with lush invertebrate life, many fish including large red fish and lingcod, and some sheephead.
The terrain looked great for bugs, but I did not see one.
When I returned to the boat. Shel returned shortly after me with one bug.
No one, including Mel, saw any other bugs on that dive.
Eric then moved the boat to a shallower spot closer to Castle Rock.
On this dive I grabbed one bug, that was just short when I measured it.
This time Mel found one, and Shel found three more.
Eric then headed for Talcott Shoals.
When we got there, Shel and I were waiting at the front gate.
When the anchor dropped I was the first in the water, with Shel just behind me.
I swam down, found a great looking shelf and followed to the right, away from the island.
Shel took the same shelf, but went to the left, toward the island.
I grabbed my fisrt bug withing 30 seconds of getting to the shelf.
Then I continued on and found two more.
I returned with three bugs, and thought it was a great dive.
However, Shel had already returned with three more very nice ones, one about 8 lbs., and one 10.2 lbs.
For the last dive, Eric moved to a shallower spot at Talcott.
As is his custom, Shel took the 10.2 lb. bug down with him and put it back in the reef.
I managed to get one more.
We then had a nice calm ride home.
It was a great trip!
Pictures can be found at
http://CaliforniaDiveBoats.com/Peace/2001.02.28/